Emanuel Pogatetz believes he can provide Gareth Southgate with the remedy for Boro's transfer headaches.

The Austrian's impulsive and sometimes erratic performances at left-back exposed him to criticism during his first season on Teesside.

But after bullet-heading a first home goal and shackling Didier Drogba as Boro beat the champions Chelsea in midweek, Pogatetz is confident he can compensate for the club missing out on Sylvain Distin and, so far, Robert Huth.

"I had a tough battle with Drogba and then to score such an important goal when he was marking me was the best feeling I've ever had at the Riverside," he said.

"All I needed was a little bit of belief in myself. It was quite hard for me with all of the talk about bringing defenders in. Everyone wasn't sure if our defence can do it because we are all quite young.

"So I went out to prove a point against Chelsea and to show that I can play at the highest level."

Pogatetz would still welcome new arrivals of the right calibre as Boro continue to be linked with Jonathan Woodgate and Abel Xavier.

But he feels Boro are still well stocked at the back.

"Of course we need some more power and I'm happy if good players come in," he said. But I think you have to respect the players who are here. We don't have a bad defence, we have good players there.

"All the players needed was a bit of belief and then they can make a good performance.

"You could see in the second half against Chelsea, all of the back four defended very well and a little belief will do us good now."

The 23-year-old is loving Boro's current jinx over the wealthy Londoners after being part of the side that battered them 3-0 in February.

"I think it's quite a special relationship with them at the Riverside," he said.

"Every time we play against them we do very well and I think we deserved the win on Wednesday. We were the better team over 90 minutes.

"Chelsea had one chance in the first half and took it, that's the way they play and we knew that. But we never lost belief and it was a very good feeling.

"We got at them straight away, we tried to push forward and not to sit back as we did in the second half against Reading."

But Pogatetz said victory will count for little unless Boro can back it up with another home win over Portsmouth on Monday.

"It would be disappointing if it starts like last season now, where we win big games like Chelsea and lose some quite smaller games," he said. "I hope that we go on a run now."